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Starkiller Base
After emerging from the financial ashes of the Galactic Empire, the First Order’s first order of First Order business was to get back to the only thing they do: building super weapons. Initially the plan was to build Death Star III, but it was felt viewers wouldn’t take to a direct sequel after some thirty years. So they decided to go in a new, but familiar direction. Snoke’s directions where simple. Same but bigger and better and same. Research and Development The first two ways to do bigger and better were simple. They were magnitudes of scale. Instead of moon sized, they would do planet sized. Instead of destroying planets, they would destroy entire systems. These improvements were so obvious some would say they are really unimaginative. Upgrading the super laser proved a tall task, however. Engineers toiled for hours trying to come up with a better system, but nothing could improve the efficiency of lasers for blowing up entire planets. All other designs were at once less effective and less efficient. As with most innovations, inspiration came in a flash. One engineer suggested shooting star stuff at the target planets and the idea proved viable. Production Problems That victory was short lived. The planning committee soon realized that there was no way a planet sized base could be ready for Christmas. They were looking at a May release at the earliest. A creative young officer named Lt. Loomis came up with a novel suggestion. Instead of turning a battle station into a planet why not turn a planet into a battle station. It was so simple it had to work. The First Order found the right size planet, kicked the little idiots who lived there out, and the construction of what would become known as Starkiller Base had begun. A Model of Efficiency Despite its new found solvency, the resources of the First Order were spread thin. That’s where Snoke’s creativity proved invaluable. His approach was described as “google-y”. He insisted that even the most complex task be broken into as many discreet micro tasks as possible with each one requiring no more than two Stormtroopers to complete. A base the size of Starkiller Base would normally require many costly extras to staff. But Snoke’s efficiency allowed the base to operate on a skeleton crew. In fact visitors, invading enemy forces and even escaped prisoners could wander around for hours without encountering any personnel whatsoever. Starkiller Base didn’t even have creepy Death Star droids or astromech droids on patrol which disappointed some people. You would think a base that size would be torrent of activity between administrative personnel, security and maintenance staff. But it was virtually a morgue. Fatally Flawed Starkiller Base, like Death Star I, the Bismarck and Titanic before it, was fatally flawed. The commercial grade sun sucker vacuum pump would suck in the nearest star via a proprietary technology the First Order described as a "giant invisible straw". Once consumed, the sun's power would have to be converted into star lasers. That required a thermal transfer unit. The First Order outsourced the engineering of the unit to the SNES firm of the Nintendo System. In that fraction of time after the sun’s power was converted, but before the cannon was loaded, the thermal transfer unit would flash red three times. If a RebelRessitance pilot could press A, B, A, B, Up, Down, Left, Right on their X-Wing joystick at that exact moment, the entire base would blow up. Unfortunately for the First Order, Poe Dameron had the skills to pull it off and Starkiller Base was gone almost as soon as it arrived on the scene. Category:First Order Category:Weapon